The concept of the "ikon" is to re-present the story with the intimacy of encounter one experiences by opening a small ikon to meditate. The viewer can thus interact on a very personal level with each ikon. The ikons exhibited here form part of a series of ikon projects, each series following a unique theme, but all proclaim a celebration of women. The concept emerged as a further development within the Heroic Women Series of honouring women.


The August Women Ikons:
The August Women series celebrates the solidarity of South African sisterhood, in memory of the 1956 August women’s defiance campaign & march on parliament. The images of dancing, singing women honours the memory of those heroic activists who danced, and continue to dance defiantly in the face of injustice. To date there is no publication which comprehensively records the names and stories of the women activists of South Africa. Each year we celebrate August 9 as our national Women's Day, yet few young people understand the significance of this "holiday". It is a sad reflection on how little we have honoured the memory of that historic day. A day when, for the first and only time in our history, women, Black, White, Coloured and Indian, from all walks of life united in solidarity against the vicious injustices of apartheid, specifically the loathsome Pass Book. There were 20,000 women recorded as participants in that 1956 March to Union Buildings. Yet only a handful of names are remembered. Is it not time we gather the names, at least of those women, who braved the wrath of the government to voice their anger on the very steps of its offices. The powerful testimonies of these women, and the many others who actively participated in the long struggle, should not be lost to history. Many of those heroic women did not live to enjoy the freedom they gave their lives for. Many suffered abominably at the hands of the apartheid regime, being brutally assaulted, jailed or exiled. Many lost their families, their income and their homes because of the cruel injustices of apartheid. There is a need not only to acknowledge and honour these foremothers of our free country, but to ensure that future generations will be able to cherish their recorded memory. As South Africans are being catapulted into a capitalistic technological future age, so far removed from the culture of honouring the ancestors, there is the added urgency to gather these memories of our mothers and grandmothers before they are all gone. My small offering in this exhibition is to initiate a beginning to this journey by creating a series of "ikons" to celebrate the mothers, the aunts and sisters who went before us.


iSangoma Ikons:
This is a tribute and celebration of the traditional women healers, the Sanusi, who mediate between the Spirit world and the Natural world, who help us pay heed to the voices of our ancestors. Early in the ‘90’s I watched a 20 minute documentary made by Gugu Ngobese “Calling the Zulu Goddess Home”. This deeply moving account of a 3 day festival in KwaZulu-Natal to revive an ancient ritual to celebrate Nomkhubulwane inspired me to attempt to image the ecstatic dance of the iSangoma and celebrate their attunement to the powers of nature. These few ikons are offered in reverence to the bearers of the wisdom of the Ancient Ones.


The Malibongwe Ikons:
Malibongwe igama la makhosikazi (praise to the women!) A tribute to South African Women.

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The Wise Women Ikons:

HEROINES FOR PEACE:
Series to celebrate and honour the lives of the eleven women who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize over 100 years...

THE MYSTICS:
Series to capture moments of deepest yearning, unutterable loneliness, magical awakening, inexpressible elation...

SACRED ENCOUNTERS & MOMENTS OF DEEP AWAKENING:
My main focus has always been to honor the stories within every woman. Essentially the images I make are in celebration of our journey. Someone once said to me “we create our own journeys with every step” And I have come to realize - it is not the journey’s end that matters, it is the process, how and why we continue. It is not about what we leave behind, for actually few will really care, it is rather what we are doing right now – that popular phrase – the now – This is what inspires and agitates my image-making. And presently in my current artworks I try to create images that capture those moments of intense consciousness of a sacred encounter, those deeply personal moments of awakening into the timeless eternal now. Go to the photo gallery (Jos this is gallery 2) For sales or commissions please contact the artist

Go to photo gallery 2



For sales or commissions please contact the artist.